4 more years to finish the Jane Byrne? C'mon, IDOT.

The Willis Tower is seen in the background as construction continues on the Jane Byrne Interchange in downtown Chicago on Dec. 6, 2018.

The Willis Tower is seen in the background as construction continues on the Jane Byrne Interchange in downtown Chicago on Dec. 6, 2018. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

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It was already a Monday and then this: news that reconstruction of the Jane Byrne Interchange — one of the most notorious logjams in the nation — wouldn’t be completed until 2022, three years later than transportation officials had projected.

If the Illinois Department of Transportation meets that new deadline, the interchange will have been under reconstruction for eight years with at least a year of planning and designing before that. (Cranky motorists will argue that finishing in 2022 actually would make this a 10-construction-seasons project; IDOT itself has cited the Morgan Street bridge rebuild begun in September 2013 as “part of the overall Circle Interchange project.” But that’s piling on.)

Two world wars were fought and won in less time. Rows of skyscrapers went up in less time. The transformation of Navy Pier, less time. New Comiskey Park, less time. Dan Ryan reconstruction, less time. Millennium Park, less time. The Deep Tunnel Project — oh, wait. That engineering feat began in the mid-1970s and isn’t expected to be completed until 2029. Somebody, go pick on them.

When we asked Mayor Rahm Emanuelon Wednesday about the lengthening timetable for the interchange project, he channeled our frustration: “There should be penalties and accountability in the system” on a project that is “so far behind schedule.” But his record isn’t perfect either. While he pointed to the renovation of the Chicago Transit Authority Red Line, which was completed on time and under budget, the Navy Pier Flyover, a walkway near the lakefront, is years behind schedule. Emanuel has blamed slow state funding.

We realize the Jane Byrne project — the Circle Interchange, aka “The Spaghetti Bowl,” was renamed for the late mayor in 2014 — is about as complicated as they come. IDOT officials made a decision early on to keep lanes of traffic moving. That means the construction gets done more slowly and, so far, mostly on the bridges stretching across the expressways. That might explain why motorists don’t often see work crews on the ground — often a ghost town of disheveled cement and barricades. Even the bridge work has been undertaken mostly at night to ameliorate traffic jams. IDOT also pleads that, to deal with deteriorating infrastructure, the agency unexpectedly had to reroute workers to Lake Shore Drive and Interstate 55 ramp projects.

The Byrne interchange also is smack dab in an urban area. At the project’s get-go, IDOT labeled it the most congested interchange in the nation, serving 400,000 drivers a day. A CTA rail line runs through the middle, a major water pumping station is in its footprint, neighborhood traffic includes bicyclists and pedestrians, and the constant streams of drivers heading east, west, north and south clog the site nonstop.

Still, four years is a long delay. Especially for a network so central to Chicago. We’ll never understand why IDOT didn’t order more intense work or bigger crews around the clock and on weekends. Let’s just say that if Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker shares Emanuel’s devotion to penalties and accountability, he’ll make new friends by the thousands.

For many commuters, there is a way to deal with it. Get on a train. Carpool. Take the bus. Leave early. No, leave earlier. By any means, reduce the numbers of cars and trucks winding through the construction. Give your heartburn and your middle finger a rest. It’s going to be a while.